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Part of the series on: The Dialogues of Plato

Early dialogues:

Apology – Charmides – Crito

Euthyphro – First Alcibiades

Hippias Major – Hippias Minor

Ion – Laches – Lysis

Transitional & middle dialogues:

Cratylus – Euthydemus – Gorgias

Menexenus – Meno – Phaedo

Protagoras – Symposium

Later middle dialogues:

The Republic – Phaedrus

Parmenides – Theaetetus

Late dialogues:

Timaeus – Critias

The Sophist – The Statesman

Philebus – Laws

Of doubtful authenticity:

Clitophon – Epinomis

Epistles – Hipparchus

Minos – Rival Lovers

Second Alcibiades – Theages

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The First Alcibiades or Alcibiades I, a dialogue featuring Alcibiades in conversation with Socrates, is ascribed to Plato, although scholars are divided on the question of its authenticity. It was probably written within a century or two of Plato's other works.

Papyrus fragment of Alcibiades I, section 131.c-e.

In the First Alcibiades, Socrates declares his immense love for Alcibiades in a short preface, then continues, for the rest of the dialogue, conversing over the many vital reasons Alcibiades needs him. Though ultimately Socrates' attempts to woo Alcibiades away from politics and towards the philosophical life fail, by the end of Alcibiades I, the Athens youth is very much seduced by Socrates' reasoning. In antiquity Alcibiades I was regarded as the best text to introduce one to Platonic philosophy, which may perhaps be why it has (since antiquity) been included in the Platonic corpus.

The authenticity of the First Alcibiades was never doubted in antiquity. It was not until 1836 that the German scholar Friedrich Schleiermacher argued for its inauthenticity.^[1] Subsequently the popularity of the dialogue declined. However, Stylometrcal research indicates the authenticity of the dialogue,^[2] and some scholars have recently defended its authenticity.^[3]

Traditionally, the First Alcibiades has been considered an early dialogue. However a later dating has also been defended, e.g. by Nicholas Denyer, who suggests that it was written in the 350's BC.^[4]

• Denyer, Nicholas, "introduction", in Plato, Alcibiades, Nicholas Denyer (ed.) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001): 1-26.
• Foucault, Michel, The Hermeneutics of the Subject: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1981–1982 (New York: Picador, 2005).
• Young, Charles M., "Plato and Computer Dating", in Nicholas D. Smith (ed.), Plato: Critical Assessments volume 1: General Issues of Interpretation (London: Routledge, 1998): 29-49.

• First Alcibiades

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